Eliminating bad reading habits

people often continue to apply the reading techniques that they learned in primary school such as

• reading word for word,
• sub-vocalisation, 
• re-reading sections of text that were missed as a result of the mind wandering off.  

These bad reading habits put a break on how fast we can read and reduce our level of text comprehension. If we are to read more efficiently we have to eliminate the barriers to reading progress.

Dynamic eye processes

When we read a text, we communicate the information contained in the text to the brain via the eyes. People who use traditional reading techniques focus on individual words. They seek out the individual meanings of the words and then link them together.

This practice has to be modified because our eyes are capable of far more complex processes such as chunking together several words into larger units of meaning. We have to learn to trust in our eyes' speed, read for meaning and ignore filler words to improve our reading efficiency.

Targeted reading 

Efficient reading doesn't always mean spending less time reading. Not all texts are equally important. That’s why efficient readers initially scan the text to see how important it is and then, if appropriate, take a more in-depth look at its content in a several-stage process.

You may have to invest the same amount of time in an important text as you would have before you learned more efficient reading techniques. There are several stages to this process which deepen the reader’s understanding of the text and are essential for information retention.